"Street Fighter" is hoping for a "Mario Bros."-style reclamation story on the big screen. Capcom would probably settle for something akin to the most-recent "Mortal Kombat" movie, frankly.
The popular fighting game series was turned into a 1994 action flick starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia. It was a marginal success, if modestly received critically. They tried again in 2009 with "The Legend of Chun-Li." That one was a front-to-back disaster.
With the revitalization of video game adaptations on the big screen (thanks to both some successes and the fact Hollywood ran out of superheroes to give movies), it's not surprising that a new "Street Fighter" movie is in the works. Now, Legendary Entertainment is joining forces with Capcom, and a few actors are in talks to be in the movie. Well, a few actors and one professional wrestler who has done a smidge of acting.
The headliner is Jason Momoa. He was in "A Minecraft Movie," and recently the trailer for his Apple TV+ show "Chief of War" dropped. It's not surprising to see Momoa in the mix for "Street Fighter." One, the guy is not exactly choosy with his projects and "prestige" doesn't seem to be a word in his vocabulary. Dude makes ads for some Monopoly app. Also, he's a big, muscular guy who makes sense in a movie based on a video game about fighting. We could see him hamming it up as the villain M. Bison.
Other actors in talks to join the project include Noah Centineo, a name you may know and whose credits include "Black Adam" and the upcoming buzzy "Warfare". Andrew Koji is less of a known name, but he was in the TV show "Warrior" and in the movie "Bullet Train." Also, and pertinent to this project, he's a trained and experienced martial artist. Lastly, there's Roman Reigns. He's been one of the most-prominent professional wrestlers over the last couple decades, but unlike John Cena or Dwayne Johnson, he hasn't done a ton of acting yet. His biggest role to date was in "Hobbs & Shaw." One presumes he may be in for a secondary, even tertiary, role. "Street Fighter" is based around a bunch of people fighting each other, so having somebody who is well-versed in pretending to fight makes sense.
While it is clear they are taking a big swing, but not too big of a swing, for the cast of "Street Fighter," the next good "Street Fighter" movie will be the first.
(h/t The Hollywood Reporter)
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